Dodd was working to maintain the staff in engineering while allowing Nelson and Machado the chance to get some rest. Those two had really been working hard maintaining the cloaking device and the masking programs that are n place to help hide the emissions from the ship.

Pril was covering for Machado and Dodd himself was covering for Nelson. Taggert is off the ship on the away mission and so Dodd was trying to not take all of it as his to do. He was pleased with how well his staff meshed and worked together. He has been short a few staff members since last at Starbase.

Then Donovan entered engineering and requested Dodd to meet in his office. Dodd then got Ensign Tollar to cover for Pril and had Pril cover for him. He quickly explained the process to Pril and left her in charge while he had his meeting with Donovan.

Donovan then left engineering and Dodd then called Petty Officers Jaxson, Nable and Johnson and Ensigns Spoak and Tollar and Petty Officer Pril to his office.

Those six engineering members soon arrived in chief's office.

"Thank you for quickly coming to my call. I can't explain any more information than what am about to give you. I need you to equip another shuttlecraft with the camouflage material and then convert the systems to run in stealth mode. I need this done in like two and a half hours at the least. I will get others to cover the positions you will leave vacant while you do this. Thank you!" Dodd directed his team.

- Bridge -

As the cloaked ship was waiting for its away teams to return, a group of Jem'Hadar fighters arrived, it looked like an as yet unexpected patrol, Somers looked up at the viewscreen and pressed her chairs Communications button.

=/\= All hands, this is the Captain, rig for silent running immediately, a group of Jem'Hadar ships have just appeared in the sector, currently they are at the edge of our sensor range which means we have a small window to go silent, so get it done people, but be prepared to go to Red Alert and full combat if needed, Somers out =/\= she said as the bridge officers began to rig for silent running.

=/\= Winchester to the Captain, all fighters are ready if you need them," Paul said over the com channel, =/\=and are shutting down systems that can be scanned,=/\= he finished as he knew this was the best way to be quiet.

Somers leaned her head forward and scratched her head "he just risked the ship!" she said to herself, but hey everyone was different, she valued this, if she did not Sheela's antics would have been stopped long ago, but she like the rebellious side to the Mousian and valued her skill, so she let some of her clandestine stuff slip past the sensors so to speak.

Now she watched the patrol go by and quietly to herself "go on, nothing to see here" she could sense that the bridge was holding its collective breath as the patrol passed by, she suddenly realised that this is how the ancient sub-mariners must have felt like when they had to rig for silent running as the enemy swept the waters with their sonar dishes.

The Dominion patrol had left the area and as the extra power systems came back on the Communications came to life.

=/\= Lady luck to Casino Royale, come in, please. We have answered a distress call for a freighter that is badly damaged found a crew full of women that need not only a new ship but medical care as well, they were apparently attacked, Do I bring them as a rescue? =/\= Maia said.

Somers opened up a connecting channel =/\=Casino Royale to Lady Luck, what is the damage should you bring them back? Remember our orders =/\= Somers said curiously as to how those names came to be and who was the Bond fan.

=/\=We can give them a ride to New Xindus, their ship is a wrecked hulk. We have stabilized life support but the power systems need a starport to repair and the warp core has already been ejected. Structural integrity is down to 12 percent, its time to abandon ship=/\= Maia said.

She sighed heavily "there is always something going wrong" she said to herself =/\= Acknowledged Commander, bring them back to the ship, but they are not to leave the shuttle bay when they do come back, our location is one light-year outside of the New Xindus Sensor perimeter, the main shuttle bay will be ready, Somers out=/\= with that she closed the link and not long after another communications came through, she was just glad the patrol had left.

Dr Cahill opened an extremely narrow band of communications to the Tomcat =/\=Shuttle Challenger to Tomcat. Request permission to dock=/\= she stood by for a response.

Looking over to the sensor officer who nodded that the shuttle was holding position outside the ship =/\= granted Challenger, dock in shuttle bay two, Tomcat out. After the communications officer had closed the link she opened another to Medical.

Looking at Lt Coro, take us in as Dr Cahill assisted her in landing. We get going to it. =/\= Acknowledged Tomcat.=/\= We land and get everything settled down. She smile, "Thanks everyone great job, return to your duty stations and report in."

Dr Cahill went to the turbo lift without changing. She went straight to the bridge and stepped off. She took her report to the Captain.
" Here is my final report Captain mission accomplished. Also I was about to swipe some communications channel from the Xindi ships and we can now monitor their communications and be better able to avoid them. They are expecting Dominion ships to come soon. That may be where the fighters came from, I hope we can be out of here before they arrive."

Taking the Padd with the report on Somers has a look at it as she listened to her Chief Medical Officer, looking up "we just avoided one patrol, we will have to be ready for the next one, thank you Commander, work with Doctor Aldana to get shuttle bay two set up as a Triage station, Commander Sterling is on her way back with a cramped shuttle full of doppelgangers they saw some of the away team and by all accounts, they will need medical care, I have assigned security to keep them in the shuttle bay, I want to keep the risk of contamination down.

"Yes, Captain," Cahill said and left the bridge to carry out her task.

Next Dodd called Petty Officer Nelson to his office.

"Clay, I need you to take over engineering in my absence until Taggert returns to the ship. I know you will not let me down and I know you will do what is best for the ship and the crew," Dodd commanded.

"Sir, I am sure there are others who would be better in command of engineering, than myself," Nelson replied.

"I know you can do this and I can't really explain much more than I have faith in you and I know you better than you think. You can do this and also it will look good for you in the future of your career," Dodd stated and then he stepped out of his office and headed for his quarters.

"Oh, Lt. Dodd!" Teela interrupted as he looked like he was on his way. Her tail was swishing excitedly behind her as he turned to face her.

"Yes, Teela. What can I do for you?" Dodd replied and then smiled from ear to ear as he always enjoyed Teela's presence no matter the issue, she could make him smile.

"I made another sensor sweep, just as a test of our computer systems, and I think I'm picking up evidence of an explosive on that freighter," she said, as she gave him the large PADD, which zoomed into the aft of the freighter. There were microfractures all along the aft, and it was leaking atmosphere, slowly, but surely, into space.

"Good find, Teela. That freighter is very old even from our universe's standards. The explosive you found is not an armed device but it was used to help in some of their repairs to make the ship flightworthy. However, the fractures you found are worse than we thought. Look at this enhancement, you will see that most of the hull of the ship has them all over while some are leaking atmosphere into space it is only a matter of time until the ship is destroyed.

"Can we contact the away team?" Ensign Tjaansz asked. "That freighter needs to land or be abandoned soon. And I don't know if it can handle much more spaceflight as it is."

=/\= Dodd to Captain =/\=

Looking up from the padd she was reading, she tapped her Commbadge =/\= Go ahead Mr Dodd =/\=

=/\= We have a situation with the freighter that Maia's team is investigating. Ensign Teela has discovered that practically the entire hull is covered in microfractures some of which are leaking atmosphere into space, but it could go any minute. We need to reach out and warn the away team and try to save all the lives on that ship =/\= Dodd replied.

She gave what was some serious thought before she responded =/\= Send the team a tight-beam transmission warning them of the problems, they are permitted to help with repairs, if it is safe to do so =/\= Somers responded.

"Teela, prepare the tight-beam transmission. Include all the data of our readings, but be sure they know they are permitted to help with repairs if it is safe to do so." Dodd ordered the purple-furred engineer.

"Nelson, I need to depart for an away team mission I am assigned to. You will need to continue the work here. Do what you can to keep the shuttle teams safe and don't be afraid to ask for help from the captain or anyone if you need it. That makes you a stronger leader than you may think." Dodd directed Nelson as he left engineering to get ready for his mission.

Nelson had just sent the tight beam message to Maia's shuttle after Teela had prepared it. He was getting things prepared for his time as the chief and positioning the crew where he knew they could do the best while both Dodd and Taggert were off the ship. He knew Dodd had faith in him and he didn't want to let Dodd down.